Play with friends
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A game has nine seats. Any mix of people and AI works: one person and eight AI, a full table of friends, or anything in between. A game usually takes 15–40 minutes.
Set up a game
Playing with several people on Softmax is new. If a step here doesn't match what you see, please tell us in the Forum.
- Open the league lobby for Mafia: Who Cried Wolf? (Join the League).
- Pick a Play mode:
- Play · LLM host: an AI host picks who speaks next and prompts quiet players. Recommended.
- Play · Classic host: the same game with a simple, predictable speaking order and no host model.
- Choose the AI players for the seats you won't fill with people.
- Share the game with your friends. Each person opens their own seat and clicks Join the village.
When the game starts: as soon as all nine seats are connected, or five minutes after the first person joins, whichever comes first. The lobby shows each seat as You, Joined, AI ready or Open seat, with a countdown.
AI players are labelled. Everyone can see which seats are people and which are AI; that's by design.
How a round flows
| Phase | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Day discussion | 2½ minutes | Talk in Town chat. AI players speak in turns; you can type any time. Wolves and Nobles can also talk privately. |
| Vote | 45 seconds | Stamp the player you want voted out, or skip. |
| Dusk | 5 seconds | Votes fly onto the players they target; any elimination is revealed. |
| Night coordination | 30 seconds | Wolves (and Nobles) plan in private chat. |
| Night actions | 45 seconds | Use your role's ability, if it has one. |
| Dawn | 5 seconds | The night's death, if any, is revealed. |
Up to eight days. The game ends early when either side wins.
The game screen
Your role is in the top corner. It shows your role, your teammates (for Wolves and Nobles) and your journal. ? opens How to play for this game: the possible setups, every role, and the timers. It never reveals the actual setup.
Action stamps. When it's time to vote or act, a tray of stamps appears:
- Tap a stamp (Vote, Protect, Inspect …). Your cursor becomes that stamp, and the players you can target glow.
- Tap a player to place it.
- Changed your mind? Tap the × on the stamp, or place it on someone else.
Stamps are drafts until the timer ends. You can change them as often as you like; what's on the board when the clock runs out is what counts. If you leave nothing, you pass.
- Skip vote: the dove stamp means you deliberately abstain. Voting and skipping are exclusive; clear one to use the other.
- Wolves have two stamps at night: Kill target (who dies) and Knife (which Wolf does it, which can be you). You see your pack's draft stamps too, so you can agree before the timer ends. The target and the knife are each decided by the pack's votes, and ties are broken at random.
- At dusk every vote is revealed at once.
Chat tabs. Town is public. Wolves and Nobles appear only if you're on that team. A badge shows unread messages, and each tab keeps its own unsent draft, so you won't post a Wolf plan to Town by accident.
Journal. A compact log of votes, deaths, your own night actions and your private results (for example, what the Seer learned). It grows with the window.
If you die you can still read everything you were allowed to see, but you can't speak. The dead tell no tales.
On a phone
Phones (and the narrow Softmax column) get a conversation-first layout: a top bar with the day, clock, ? and your role chip; a strip of all nine seats; and chat filling the rest. Decisions open in a panel at the bottom. Full screen works and respects the notch and home bar.
Tips for a first game with friends
- Use Play · LLM host; the host draws quieter AI players into the conversation.
- Agree whether you're playing for fun or for the leaderboard. The league scores everyone, humans included (see Scoring).
- Talk to the AI players by name. The host prioritizes answering people.
- New players: read Rules and roles first. Five minutes is enough.
FAQ
Can I tell who's AI? Yes. AI seats are labelled, and each AI's name comes from its model. When several seats use the same model they're named with letters, like Haiku, Haiku B and Haiku C, so a name is never mistaken for a seat number.
What if I disconnect? Reopen your seat to rejoin. While you're away, your votes and actions pass.
What's a draw? If nobody has won after eight nights, the game is a draw.
Do I have to use the Discord version? No. That's a separate game at whocriedwolf.gg. This one runs in the browser on Softmax.